Eurozone big four agree growth push in Rome

France wants Tobin tax even without Britain

(ANSAmed) - Rome, June 22 - A Rome meeting between the leaders
of the eurozone's four biggest economies agreed on Friday on
moves to stoke growth and create more jobs. "The first goal on
which we agree is relaunching growth and investments and
creating more jobs in Europe," Italian Premier Mario Monti told
a press conference after two hours of talks with German, French
and Spanish leaders.

Monti, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy and French President Francois Hollande met in the
Italian capital to hammer out proposals to take to next week's
key European Union summit on the eurozone crisis in Brussels.

Hollande said the leaders had agreed that the European Union
should set aside the equivalent of 1% of its GDP to boost growth
in the area. The French president said the plan to earmark
"around 120-130 billion euros" to be used "as soon as possible"
would be put to next week's summit.

Monti said austerity policies were "not sustainable" without
growth to accompany them, adding that European leaders were
called on to show the markets that the euro project was
"irreversible". Hollande added that he will ask the upcoming
summit to proceed towards a Tobin Tax on international financial
transactions even in the face of British objections. He said the
EU countries in favour of the tax - named after Economics Nobel
prize winner James Tobin - should move ahead alone using the
mechanism of "reinforced cooperation".

Merkel reiterated her position that there must be greater
political integration to protect the single currency and that
states must be willing to concede sovereignty in some areas.

"We're doing what's possible to keep the euro as our currency
and we want to fight for this," Merkel, who was poised to fly to
Gdansk for Germany's Euro 2012 quarter-final against Greece,
told reporters.

"The political union must be stronger," she said. "We need more
Europe".

Merkel also said that Europe could not afford to ignore the
importance of stability agreements for the euro as it had in the
past. "Where there is solidarity, there must also be control,"
she said. "Europe has had a stability pact but then it didn't
respect it". In 2003 both Germany and France surpassed the
deficit ceiling of 3% of GDP established in the euro Stability
and Growth Pact of 1997, but the council of ministers failed to
apply sanctions. Ten states, led by Greece, broke the rules the
following year. "Growth and solid finances are two sides of the
same coin," Merkel said. Monti said next week's summit must
produce "more credible decisions about growth, moves capable of
forming a clear path over the mid and long term towards
economic, financial, monetary and banking integration, and
decisions that will satisfy the expectations of the financial
markets". Rajoy said the leaders had "bet on the future of
Europe" after agreeing to move towards a political, economic,
banking and fiscal union.

Hollande also said that he "fully" backed Monti's plan to use
European Union rescue funds to buy bonds on the secondary market
and stem the widening of bond-yield spreads that makes it harder
for indebted countries to service their debts. Hollande said
there had been "a very useful exchange of views" on the
so-called 'anti-spread plan' at Friday's four-way meeting,
although he declined to say what Merkel's view of the idea was.

Germany has so far been skeptical about using rescue funds to
mutualise debt.

The French leader returned to the question of eurobonds too.

He said commonly issued eurobonds to cover sovereign debt across
the eurozone must remain "a prospect" to address future crises
despite current German opposition. "Eurobonds must remain a
prospect and not one 10 years off," Hollande said, adding that
eurozone members should cede more sovereignty "only if there is
more solidarity in Europe". The spread between Italian and
German 10-year bond yields fell 10 points to 410 and the yield
dropped 0.15% to 5.69% shortly after Friday's meeting. Analysts
said the markets appeared to have welcomed the amount of
agreement found on the need to revive growth and move to a
tighter political and fiscal union.(ANSAmed).